Riel’s Prophecy

It may be hard, as someone put it, to be an artist when there’s no potable water on the reserve, but Campbell is adamant. “The leadership needs to speak up. If casinos can take money from the community, some should go back to the community for more than country and western shows. It would be to their credit to be seen standing beside their artists.” There may be irony in this, but there is also radical hope.

It was Chief Dan George who promised Canadians that his people would shatter the barriers of their isolation. Conflicts like the standoff at Caledonia may seem to deny the mutual understanding this prophecy implies, but native theatre tells another story.